In recent weeks, information has been circulating that 88,000 apartments in the municipality of Chișinău are uninhabited. And that once put on the market for sale, it would lead to a decrease in the price of real estate.
Opinions are divided and diverse. Many of these create a conflict situation between those who cannot afford an apartment and those who own them, but do not live in them.
We at Ecosem Grup, after 21 years of building residential blocks and direct contacts with thousands of clients, have a professional angle on the problem, an angle that has been omitted from public rhetoric.
That 88,000 uninhabited or "empty" apartments is a relative figure, indisputable. That there may be more, probably, but there may be fewer, is still not excluded.
The most important thing in this subject is that no one has done a study among the owners of these apartments and many of the hypotheses are simply "given opinions". A phenomenon not new to our society.
I have heard the argument that behind these apartments are investors, who invest in real estate at early stages and maintain them for years in a row for subsequent resale at a much higher price. Possibly, but in real estate, whether in Chisinau or New York, even if they are used as an instrument of financial security or a way to obtain profit from resale, regardless of their type, investors during the period of ownership of the property offer these real estate for rent in order to generate additional passive income. So the hypothesis given has its place, but it is not defining for the situation discussed.
The hypothesis that behind the 88,000 apartments there are owners who own dozens of apartments in general does not hold and would even be immoral for a developed society, or everyone has the right to decide where to invest their money and how to dispose of their properties. It's just that 95% of owners of real estate, other than their own homes, rent them out.
And what everyone misses is that since 2003, when the real estate market with new constructions really took off, the driving force of investments were citizens of the Republic of Moldova, who emigrated abroad precisely with the dream of making money to buy their own apartment or rebuild their existing house. Later, the stakes of Moldovans who went abroad shifted to purchasing apartments for their children. But after thousands of families reunited abroad due to the lack of changes and progress in Moldova, real estate investments were sold to buy their own real estate abroad or were rented out. Since 2018, due to changes in mortgage conditions and the launch of various state programs, the profile of the home buyer has also changed, mainly apartments are purchased by people who live in Moldova or have at least one member abroad.
However, what is the enigma of the 88,000 uninhabited apartments in Chisinau?!? And the answer is in sight: part of the uninhabited apartments are owned by Moldovans who work abroad and live in them when they return to Moldova on business or for holidays. And in the near future they are unlikely to sell them, as these apartments are like a second home for them.
Another much larger category of owners of the 88,000 apartments are Moldovans who work abroad, are with their children, live in these countries for rent and have not yet decided whether to return to Moldova permanently. These people treat their house romantically and hardly decide to sell it. Many of them still hope that something will change in the country and they will have prospects to return. There are also those who work abroad until retirement with the plan to return to their homes in Moldova in old age.
Obviously, opinions are divided and the army of buyers, who hope that by some miracle the prices for apartments will decrease, wish that the 88,000 owners would all sell their apartments one day, but each of them has their own plan for their house.